POLL: Over 70% of Americans want 40 MPG to be the law
by Damon Lavrinc on Nov 24th 2006 at 11:25AM 
So we read over this report by the Civil Society Institute that polled U.S. citizens on their support of a federally-mandated increase in fuel efficiency, so that vehicles in the U.S. would achieve over 40 MPG. A mind-boggling 78-percent answered "yes" when asked. However, the questions posed struck us as a little odd, so we though we'd enlist the help of our sage-like readership after you've come out of your tryptophanatic comas to give us your opinion.The report also claimed that 45-percent of Americans would be more inclined to purchase either a "hybrid or other fuel-efficient vehicle" and that 76-percent believe that the Big-Two-Point-Five are to blame for their current financial and marketplace predicaments.
We're not saying that the information presented is flawed, but we were mighty surprised by the results. So we'll pose the question to you. The poll is below, vote away.
Polling is closed and the results as of 7:30 PM EST are below.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 5)
slateslate 11:41AM (11/24/2006)
the devil is in the way the question was asked...of course a lot of people would say yes to: "Would you support a federally-mandated increase in fuel economy to 40 MPG for American vehicles?"
But would the same 70% say yes to: would you buy a Aveo/Yaris instead of an Envoy/Highlander/Avalon?
Everyone's for fuel efficient cars, but they want their neighbors to be the ones that'll buy them.
Gobble gobble.
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Steven T. 11:45AM (11/24/2006)
Regarding your "poll," keep in mind that it is not a true random sample. You won't be able to draw any scientifically valid conclusions. It's purely a party game.
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Pola 11:45AM (11/24/2006)
My voice has equaled previous
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Evan Brom 12:33PM (11/24/2006)
Making this law would mean one would have to pay more for an allready expensive car. IE a AMG mercedes. A law like this would bring us back to the dark ages of cars (the 70's) where 350 V8's made just over 200 hp. What we need is to reduce car weight like the elise.
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Mike 11:47AM (11/24/2006)
The Feds tried this over 20 years ago with CAFE rules, 55 MPH speed limits - all Big Brother attempts to meet a standard that should be based on market place conditions. It didn't work then, why should it work now. The only way that we will ever see this fule mileage point is when gas hits $4.00 per gallon here. That's why cars in Europe are typically high MPG vehilces.
Don'e get me wrong. I AM in favor of fuel effeciency, but not at the price if the Federal Government is running my life. I drive a VW TDI that gets me almost 50 MPG and a Harley Electra Glide that I try to use as often as possible that gets 45 MPG. In the end... let me make that choice.
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Rick 4:10AM (11/27/2006)
I'm in the UK, but the issues affect us here in a similar way.
I would certainly support an equivalent move here. The number of 4 litre Jeeps and 2 litre small hatchback cars on our roads is unnecessary. My own car is an unfashionable 1.3 litre mini SUV (Suzuki Jimny). It ain't pretty, but keeping the tank full doesn't break the bank!
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Damon Lavrinc 11:55AM (11/24/2006)
Steven - We're not going to submit this as evidence to a government body, nor do we intend to use this for any "scientific" research. It's a question for our readers, pure and simple.
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traderyin 11:57AM (11/24/2006)
The title should be "Over 70% of Americans want 40 MPG V8 400lbft torque and 400hp to be the law"
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aaron 12:10PM (11/24/2006)
ahahaha...
I saw this a couple days ago and could only laugh.
People aren't going back to large SUVs, and the big 2.5 are the devil.
In other news, alst month, large SUV and truck sales soared, including many from the big 2.5..
lmao. Like talking to children, they tell you what they think you want to hear..
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retsel 12:11PM (11/24/2006)
the electric car... if i could design an electric motor that could could be swapped out for a gas one.... what a wonderful world it will be...
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Tuck 12:18PM (11/24/2006)
What would really be illuminating would be the question: Does your current car get better than 30mpg?
I'd like to see those two questions side by side...
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Rick 12:14PM (11/24/2006)
Yes, the devil is in the question. How was teh question stated in the original study? You can get a randomly sampled group of humans to answer pretty an a pretty homogenous fashion if you present the question properly, we do it all the time in research and focus groups. Does anyone know what the original question was?
Rick
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Ryan 12:13PM (11/24/2006)
I guess, should we allow automakers to build products that run off of a limited resource and whatever they want? I realize with the CAFE standards Toyota has the prius and Camry hybrid which enables them to "not work that hard" on the Sequoia (just hypothetical) getting good MPG.
The other day on here they showed a Ford commercial from 1961 with the Falcon, claiming it got 30mpg.
Fast forward to 2006! I have a 2004 Mazda 3 "s" sedan that is not even rated by the epa to get 30mpg on the HIGHWAY! (Only 29) And it only get 24 city, which the way I drive the car averages 21mpg. Can't TAHOES get that on average?
It would be nice to see the standards increase, WHILE not compromising the size of cars/trucks/suv's people like to drive.
Now, if it forces all of us into hatchbacks THAT would be a different story. Who am I to stop someone to drive a 3 row SUV on the way into work. I totally disagree and think that person is a total waste to earth, and I would not have a problem driving a (screech) hatchback, but many do.
When it comes down to it, it's America and we get what we want 100% of the time, if this would ever become law and it WOULD affect what we wanted there would be hell to pay for the politicians who voted it in, at least that is what I think.
-I just really don't understand a puney sized car like my Mazda 3 is only able to average 21mpg. And if I "baby" it, it gets about 24mpg.
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rwdmtparkingonly 12:18PM (11/24/2006)
The poll above that we can take part in is not accurate because it is not random, but the Civil Society Institute is a separate, statistically accurate random survey.
That said, I think #1 has to be right. I'm shocked that 78% of American's support any government mandated mileage standards, much less a 40mpg one. However I'm sure they wouldn't support those standards if they knew what they would have to drive. I'm not sure that even the Aveo and Yaris have 40 mpg EPA highway ratings, much less combined ratings.
I have a 1.8 liter car that gets 25 city 30 highway and a 2.2 liter truck that gets 20 city 24 highway, both with manual transmissions, it takes a lot more than getting rid of big V8s to get mileage numbers over 40 mpg.
CAFE standards distorted the market (the previous exemption of trucks created the SUV craze that environmentalists despise by killing big wagons and driving those buyers to SUVs). However, bumping up the gas guzzler tax and ending the exemption for non-work trucks would be a good start.
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Habs 12:19PM (11/24/2006)
The problem is not the big 2.5. Its the US government and the oil giants.
All american car compagnies have the diesel technologie in europe why dont they bring it here????
They whant us to burn fuel and thats the bottom line.
We have the capabilities to produce ethanol and other fuels. This will have so great an impact on the oil industry that the american government will not allow it.
In addition, what will this do the was machine and arms industry? While we wage war in the middle est to control the oil fields the oil compagies and the arms industry in making money and thats what makes the US economie go round and round.
The best thing that couls happen is that the oil fiels go dry and we will not be talking about this anymore.
NOTE: If Toyota claims to be so green why are they making the Tundra,FJ and other large gaz guzzling vehiculs.
Conclusion we are getting screwed once again by polical friends at the white house.
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aaron 12:33PM (11/24/2006)
intersting note habs, regarding the imports being so green.
A recent study showed clearly that the average mpg of the japanese big players is going down substantially, as they move into selling larger vehicles. Honda for example would be in the shitter this year if their trucks hadn't been selling so well.
lmao.. who'd a thunk it.
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Ryan 12:31PM (11/24/2006)
"All american car compagnies have the diesel technologie in europe why dont they bring it here????"
-Because I would like to go for my morning 2mi runs without it smelling like an international airport :-)
-How about instead of trading one limited resource for another, we just simply work on utilzing less of BOTH!
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Ryan 12:33PM (11/24/2006)
"The best thing that couls happen is that the oil fiels go dry and we will not be talking about this anymore."
-Really, the best thing that would happen is if the world economy came to a grinding halt?
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Ryan 12:37PM (11/24/2006)
"Conclusion we are getting screwed once again by polical friends at the white house."
-I honestly think that is slightly dramatic, you would then have to blame every single president/white house affiliate that goes back for decades.
-Why does FORD MOTOR have such a stronghold in BRAZIL with 100% "E" not E85 crap but 100% ethanol? That is what pisses me off, Ford you have the ability.
-Ford could garner huge amounts of attention stating "All of our cars have the ability to run 100% ethanol, but nobody is building the infrastructure". It would put Ford and our government in the spotlight.
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pauln 12:38PM (11/24/2006)
Folks, don't you see how stupid this poll was (and Autoblog's is)? It's the same as asking folks if they support the government mandating that Big Macs have their caloric value reduced in half (but not the size or taste). The inference in this poll is that folks want to drive 40 mpg Tahoes (or whatever). Who wouldn't agree to that? There's no surprise in the results, as the poll was written. Polls, if you understand them, are all too often misleading.
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